We spent a weekend in Sevilla at the end of our Portugal Roadtrip. From the Algarve it is only about 2 hour drive to Sevilla. The city is full of beautiful architecture, culture and great food and wine.
We got our bearings taking the White Umbrella free walking tour. We have always enjoyed free walking tours and this was was no different. Our guide was super friendly and we learned alot about the city.
The tour starts at Plaza de España. The plaza was built in 1928 for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929. It is very impressive. We highly recommend walking up to the balcony and taking in the view from higher up during your visit. It is completely free to walk up.
Another very impressive site is the Cathedral de Sevilla. This is by far the largest cathedral we have seen and it is a UNESCO world heritage site. You can buy tickets and visit the inside. We opted to skip the inside as we only had limited time in the city.
The Real Alcázar is the palace where the King stays when he visits the city. You can also buy tickets to visit the inside but again we skipped that due to our limited time. Our tour guide said between the Real Alcázar and the Cathedral de Sevilla he recommends visiting the Real Alcázar.
The walking tour will also take you by the: Torre del Oro- The gold tower is 36-meters high. It was built by the Almohads in the 12th century and was part of the Moorish city wall, which ran between the Real Alcázar and the rest of Sevilla. The purpose of the tower was to control shipping on the Guadalquivir River which runs through the city.
Plaza de la real maestranza de caballería de Sevilla– the bull-fighting ring. We didn’t have a great vantage point for photos. During the season you can see a bull fight here but unfortunately we were there on the off season. There are often concerts and other events he as well if you are interested.
Hotel Alfonso– This may be one of the prettiest buildings in the city. It will cost you quite alot to stay here but you can go inside and order a coffee or drink at the bar. Then you can enjoy the inside at much less cost.
The Royal Tobacco Factory- this is free to visit inside and is now owned by the University.
There are several other stops within the city on this tour. We have only included the highlights here. We also would recommend taking a walk along the river. There are large running and bike paths and many small restaurants lining the waterfront.
Now for the food! We mostly hoped around enjoying tapas but we did do one actual sit down meal. We ate at Restaurante A Banda for paella. We really enjoyed the paella and all the staff were super nice and very patient, letting us practice our Spanish speaking as best we could.
Tapas Tour:
Tapas traditionally were a small snack that you got for free when your ordered a drink. Today, in Sevilla anyway, they are no longer free. Most restaurants will have a tapa, half ration and full ration of their items listed on the menu. Most places have tables inside and outside and were very crowded. Our first night we lucked out and found space in several tapas places. Our second night it was more crowded and we struggled a bit to find tables or open spots at the bar. We would suggest that you get a table and order a few tapas at 1-2 places, take your time to enjoy and take in the city. Our group really enjoyed Los Coloniales. There are plenty of other great places in this area to eat. Walk around until you find the places full of locals or the places that smell amazing and then go there!
We may be a little partial after spending so much time in Northern Spain but… in our opinion we felt the food in San Sebastian and Bilbao was better. We need to spend more time in Southern Spain to really judge but for now that is where we stand.
Another great cultural activity in the city to see a Flamenco show. We did see some dancers around the city during our walking tour but we didn’t go to a full show. Next time we are in this region we really would love to see more Flamenco.
Although our time here was short we did really enjoy the city! For us it was mostly about the food, the wine and the friends we were with!
What are your favorite parts of Southern Spain? What did we miss? Leave us a comment below.
We love exploring the coast and Portugal is a perfect place to drive, stop and wander along the way. We started our road trip in Lisbon and drove south to the Algarve. There are plenty of great little towns to stop at along the way. No need to rush to the Algarve, take your time exploring.
Sintra:
Our first stop was just a short drive outside of Lisbon. Sintra is about 40 minutes outside the city. Many people do this as a day trip from Lisbon but we chose to visit on our way out to the coast. From our research online we knew that you can buy tickets ahead of time for your visit to the castles. We also knew that for the Pena Palace specifically the tickets are time slotted.
It seemed from our reading that we would be able to walk/hike around and get views of the castles from the trails in the area. We had saved a trail on Alltrails intending to do just that. With further research the night before we planned to drive to Sintra, we realized you can’t park anywhere near the castles. You can park for free at one of the lots in town and then you need to take a bus up the hill to see the castles.
The bus cost was 11 euro a person and that got you endless hop on/hop off rides for 24 hours. After taking the crowded bus up to the top of the hill we got off at the Pena Palace stop. The line to buy tickets and to enter the palace was insanely long. We also saw no why to get any sort of close view of the palace or surrounding grounds without a ticket. We walked a short way back down the hill to visit the Moorish castle instead. This castle had a very short line. Tickets were 8 euro a person.
We did enjoy climbing the walls of the Moorish castle and we did get pretty good views of Pena Palace from the castle. While we were glad we visited, this was probably our least favorite part of the trip. We enjoy less crowded areas and getting off the beaten path. If you have a very strong desire to see the castles this place is beautiful and likely worth a stop for you. If you are like us and like avoiding the crowds, skip Sintra and move on. You will have plenty of other opportunities to see castles in Portugal.
After exploring the Moorish castle we headed back down the hill and into town. We stopped for lunch at Kebabish. This place had really good doner kebab for a great price! While we don’t highly recommend Sintra, we do highly recommend lunch here if you do decide to visit!
Peniche:
This is a sleeply, little beach town. It does get a bit of surf tourism when the waves get big. There was not much going on while we were in town. Peniche is out on a small peninsula meaning lots of great coastline to explore here. We stayed near the water at Guest House Beach Break. We would highly recommend this place! Our host was so great, he gave us several great recommendations.
We got into town in the late afternoon. After settling in we began walking along the water. The views along the sea cliffs here as stunning! After taking our time exploring we grabbed an uber to arrive at our dinner location before sundown. Our host recommended dinner at Marisqueria dos Corticais. This restaurant is build down into the rock, right on the water. The full glass panels along the wall allow for great ocean views as you eat. We arrived at 7pm which was right when they opened for dinner. This was just before sundown so unfortunately we only got to enjoy the view for a few minutes. The views would be better enjoyed while they are open for lunch.
We were a group of four so we decided on their seafood platter. The amount of food easily fed the four of us! This is a great way to try a large variety of seafood if you are in a group and can share. Our waiter also recommended a really nice wine that was a great price! We had the entire restaurant to ourselves that evening. Our waiter also gave us several other wine recommendations before we left so we could find good bottles at the local grocery store.
After dinner there were no ubers available so we ended up walking back to our booking, across the peninsula. Surprisingly, there was a very large grocery store in town. We were able to grab snacks, wine and toiletries on our walk back.
The next morning we hiked out to the end of the small peninsula near our booking- Pedra Alta e Forte da Luz. This is an easy hike and the views are worth it!
From there we drove the short distance to Baleal. You can park for free at Parking da Praia do Baleal. From there you can walk along the sidewalk that runs along the center of two beaches. The beaches are full of people surfing and just enjoying the beach. We stopped at a small beach-side cafe for coffee and a snack. Our last stop in this area was to walk out to the Baleal view. Again a very short, easy walk and the views at the end were beautiful!
Obidos:
We stopped in this small, medieval town on the recommendation of our Peniche host. We were happily surprised to see a beautiful, walled city. This place is so pretty! After entering under a large arch which is part of the old, castle wall you will find small, windy, cobblestone streets. You can climb along the wall in parts of the town. After wandering the streets we stopped for lunch at Madok before heading out of town. Madok had great tapas for lunch and a warlock/wizard type vibe which our group enjoyed.
Porto Covo:
Once again, this is a sleepy, little beach town without much going on. We arrived late afternoon and really enjoyed our evening. We walked to the water and found a really nice trail that followed the cliffs with stairs down to most of the small beaches and coves.
We decided to stop into the local grocery store, grab some food to make dinner at our booking for the night. We grabbed a few beers and took in the sunset from the large deck area on the water before heading home for the night.
The next morning we wandered some more before heading off further south. There was a really nice bakery in town and a small coffee shop. That was all we needed while in town on this trip.
During peak, summer months this place is likely more lively. We saw several hostels and condos on the water that looked closed up for the season. There are also several restaurants and shops.
Sagres:
After our morning walk we set out to the furthest point south, Sagres. We stopped for lunch at the Laundry cafe. This place had nice salads and smoothies as well as coffee or alcoholic drinks. There is literally laundry in the back of the restaurant. The place is full of young travelers and surfers hanging out, working remotely and of course, doing laundry!
After lunch we walked along the main beach in town- Praia da Mareta before driving to the Sagres point. You will feel you are at the end of the world, looking out over the large, white sea cliffs there.
From the point we headed to the Surf beach- Praia do Tonel. We spend the rest of the afternoon enjoying a beer on the beach and watching the surfers.
Lagos:
Our final stop was the Algarve. We chose to stay in Lagos, and we spent two nights here. Our first night we wandered around the marina and around town before heading to Mar restaurant for dinner with a view. The food was good, overpriced from what we had seen so far on our trip but worth it for the beach views from the top of the cliff.
We ate at Studio Coffee Roasters for breakfast while we were in town and really enjoyed that. Our final night in town we had dinner at Nah nah bah burgers. The burgers were great and just what we were craving after many miles walking around town and the coastal cliffs.
We had pretty foggy weather but we still loved exploring along the Farol da Ponta da Piedade hike. If the weather hade been better we were hoping to kayak along this route but with the fog and wind we opted for exploring by land.
You can walk down to several of the small beaches along the hike. Once on the beaches you will find small paths that are only open at low tide and allow you to walk to several other beaches.
Back in town, we walked Praia dos estudantes to take in views of the roman style bridge right in the rocky coastline. We would highly recommend taking your time and just wandering these beautiful beaches.
From Lagos we set off further into the Algarve to do the Seven Hanging Valleys hike- Percurso dos Sete Vales Suspensos. We only ended up doing part of this hike before our group was hungry for lunch. We would love to go back and do the entire thing! Again these cliffs and rocks along the coast are so pretty and worth taking time to explore!
Evora:
From The Algarve we headed to Sevilla, Spain for a few days before heading back to Lisbon. One of our previous hosts had recommended we visit Evora on our way to the Algarve. We didn’t have time to stop on our down the coast but we did do a quick stop on our way back into Lisbon.
This small, medieval town again is surrounded by old, castle walls. There are some old, Roman ruins in the center of town and a very nice central square. After walking around we stopped for lunch in the square. The food here was not great but the town was worth stop so all in all we called it a success!
We really enjoyed our road trip through this part of Portugal! It was a very easy country to travel through. We found enough English spoken to get us by and everyone was very friendly and happy to help us along the way!
What do you love about Portugal? What did we miss, where should we go next time we are in Portugal, let us know in the comments below!
Lisbon is an absolutely beautiful city! We really enjoyed our time in the city and would love to visit again! There is so much great food and drinks to be had, culture to dive into and so much more.
Our trip started and ended in the city. We spent the first two nights in the Graça neighborhood. This area was very nice, close to many restaurants and a short walk to most of what we wanted to see. At the end of our trip we stayed just outside of Barrio Alto. The Barrio Alto neighborhood its self is a nice area full of restaurants and shops. Where we stayed was a bit on the outskirts. The area we stated worked well for us on our last night in the city but ideally we would recommend staying in Graça, Barrio Alto or Alfama.
City Lookouts:
There are many lookouts around the city that offer great views and can be a great way to orient yourself to what is around you. We visited a few and would highly recommend all of them.
Miradouro da Graça- The Graça neighborhood is one of the highest in the city so this view really gives a great overview of the entire city.
Miradouro Sao Pedro de Alcantara- We happened upon some really amazing street performers here. There is a kiosk here where you can get snacks and drinks. We grabbed a glass of wine and sat on a bench to enjoy the music and the city view.
Miraduoro de Santa Canatrina- This one is closer to the water. There is also a kiosk here to grab snacks and drinks.
Food and Drink:
10 dish tasting dinner at A Taberna do Mar– We stumbled upon this place on our first night in the city. It is a very small restaurant in the Graça neighborhood. We lucked out and got in without a reservation but it is likely a good idea to reserve your table as this place is likely to gain in popularity.
The chef was wonderful and the food was some of the best we have ever had! Our waitress and the chef were also able to speak to us in English to explain each dish. They also helped recommend wine to pair with tasting. They do only take cash or local credit cards as of the writing so come prepared for that.
Maria Catita- Our second night in the city we had reservations here for dinner. We were with friends so we shared a fish cataplana and a shellfish cataplana. This dish is a rich, Portuguese stew and a must try!
Time Out Market– Another must while in Lisbon. This place is crowded but the food was excellent! Everything we saw looked very good. The market has multiple small restaurants/food stalls so you can chose where you want to order from. The center is full of tables so you can grab seats and eat wherever you can find a spot. Be sure to grab some pastéis de nata while in the market. The best ones we ate on our trip were the ones we ate here.
Pastéis de Nata- These little custard pastries are an iconic Portuguese treat! Pastel de nata originated in the Belem area of the city. If you don’t mind waiting in line, you should try the original recipe in Belem- https://pasteisdebelem.pt/en/. We passed on this as the line was extremely long when we went by.
Ginjinha- Another iconic Lisbon treat is ginjinha which is a cherry liquor. It is basically brandy with different spices and sour cherries. We visited two of the oldest establishments in the city- Ginjinha Sem Rival and A Ginjinha Espinheira. We enjoyed both and they are right around the corner from each other so it is easy to visit both. These are small, hole in the wall places. You walk in, tell the man behind the small bar how many you want and then enjoy your shot out on the street.
PanorámicaTejo- This seems to be a newer set up. If you walk from Barrio Alto, down the hill all the way to the water, you will see several beer and drink tents set up along the waterfront. This place was full of locals sitting around enjoying a drink by the water. It was a really nice place to see the sunset and just relax. We enjoyed watching the ferries and all the sailboats pass by.
Ninja buns- This place was right across the street from the last place we stayed in the city. Although not the best area to stay and explore the city this place was really good! We grabbed lunch here and killed some of our final time in the city before heading to the airport. The bao buns were very good. If you find yourself in this part of the city we would recommend stopping in for lunch.
Lebanese Corner- Again this place was very close to the last place we stayed, also would be a short walk from Barrio Alto. We grabbed take out here after walking around the city our final evening. The shawarmas were very good and a nice change after eating so much seafood throughout the trip!
Walk the City and Explore:
While you wander you will notice the sidewalks are cobblestone and many of them feature detailed designs, adding to the city’s beauty. You will also notice the tiles that line many of the buildings. The colors and patterns are a site to see. You won’t have to wander far to see these important parts of Portugal’s culture. We do have some specific recommendations for things to see in the city, listed below. There are many more things not included here. We only had a couple days in Lisbon so we couldn’t get to everything!
Igreja de São Domingos– This church experienced a fire in 1959. It has been reopened but the much of the walls are still black and you can see the affect the fire had on the original building and decor. We didn’t spend much time inside but it is free to enter and worth a quick stop. Apparently neither of us took any photos while inside, so you will just have to visit yourself to see it.
Lisbon Cathedral– This is the oldest church in the city. It is beautiful to walk by and is located in the center of the city. You won’t miss it if you’re wandering around, exploring.
Castelo Sao Jorge– You can’t miss this large castle while looking out on the city. We wandered up the hill towards the entrance and found quite a long line of people. We decided to skip the line and view the castle from the outside only. We did see several peacocks roaming the grounds which was unexpected.
If you do really want to go inside the castle, tickets can be purchased ahead of time to help save time and avoid some of the line. Use the website linked above.
Praca (Plaza) Dom Pedro IV– This is also referred to as Rossio Square and is the main square within the city. It is a beautiful to see and a nice place to sit and relax for a bit. The area around the square is paved with cobblestones in a traditional wave pattern. There is a large marble monument in the center and surrounded by beautiful buildings.
Alfama– This is one of the oldest parts of the city. It features narrow, cobblestone streets that wind the hills. Traditional houses and small cafes and shops line the streets. We walked through on a Sunday morning so alot of the shops and cafes were closed. You will see the streets narrow and the whole look of the area change. That is when you know you are in the right place. It isn’t a place where you need a plan, just wander and take in the people and the neighborhood.
Belem– The Belem area is a bit outside of the city. You can get there on public transportation however ubers are cheap in the city so we took an uber right from our booking. We took the free walking tour of the area. We always recommend free walking tours, we have taken them in many different cities and have never been disappointed. Belem has alot of history and we never would have learned without the tour.
The entire area holds significance in the age of discovery when Portugal was exploring and building colonies all over the world. On the tour you will see the Jerominos Monastery, where the pastel de Belem originated. You will also see the Belem Tour and The Padrão dos Descobrimentos (Monument to the Discoveries).
The ground as you approach the monument to the Discoveries is a marble map which was a gift from South Africa in remembrance of Portugal’s rounding of the Cape of Good Hope, which led to a new sea route to the East. The map shows the routes and dates of the Portuguese voyages, which essentially covered the entire globe. The entire area is quite small and you can also easily see everything on your own in an afternoon if you prefer not to take the tour.
We aren’t usually big city people but we really enjoyed our time in Lisbon and would love to go back! What is your favorite thing about Lisbon, what did we miss. Leave us a comment below.
